How living in a car-reduced neighbourhood decreases car ownership and increases multimodality: a case–control study from Germany

Abstract As part of the social-ecological transformation of urban mobility, car-reduced neighbourhoods offer a promising approach for facilitating car-independent lifestyles. To foster sustainable transport, they implement ‘pull’ measures like subsidized shared mobility alongside ‘push’ measures such as parking space reduction and pricing to discourage car use and ownership. Because the effects of these car-reduced neighbourhoods on residents’ travel behaviour remain understudied, this paper evaluates their impact by examining car ownership levels and multimodal travel patterns. Using a case–control study, we compare residents of the car-reduced Lincoln neighbourhood in Darmstadt, Germany, with other recent movers within the same municipality (N = 952). To isolate the specific impact of residential location, the potential effects of residential self-selection and relocation are considered by incorporating travel-related attitudes, socio-demographic characteristics, and mobility tool ownership. Our findings indicate that living in a car-reduced neighbourhood significantly reduces multi-car ownership and, among residents who have a high affinity for sharing, also increases car-free households. Furthermore, residents of the car-reduced neighbourhood are more likely to adopt multimodal travel patterns that do not involve regular car use compared to those living in the inner city. The study underscores the potential of residential area design in fostering sustainable travel behaviour.